Netflix Defends ‘Lewd’ Film Cuties After An Indictment By A Texas Grand Jury

Netflix has taken heat following the release of the provocative French film “Cuties” last month and now faces a criminal charge that alleges the streamer promotes, “lewd visual material” of a child.

Fox News is reporting that on September 23 a Tyler County, Texas grand jury lodged the indictment claiming Netflix “knowingly” promoted visual material which, “depicts the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 years of age at the time the visual material was created, which appeals to the prurient interest in sex, and has no serious, literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

Netflix previously defended the film to Fox News, describing the work as, “a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up.”

Netflix defends controversial film Cuties after grand jury indictment

On Tuesday Netflix redoubled its defense of the film stating, “Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children.” A spokesperson for Netflix told Fox News, “This charge is without merit and we stand by the film.”

Maïmouna Doucouré wrote and directed the film and wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post explaining her stance saying, “We, as adults, have not given children the tools to grow up healthy in our society.” She called Cuties, “a deeply feminist film with an activist message” that is a “mirror of today’s society, a mirror sometimes difficult to look into.”

She said she got the idea for the project watching a group of 11-year-old Paris girls dancing in their neighborhood in a way, “you would see in a video clip.”

BREAKING: Texas Grand Jury indicts @Netflix, Inc. for promoting material in 'Cuties' film which "depicts lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child which appeals to the prurient interest in sex…" pic.twitter.com/YeEKI6gR6M

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 6, 2020

Despite her protestations, critics have accused the film of sexualizing children and before the indictment, a petition was introduced asking viewers to boycott Netflix. Even Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been pulled into the fray with demands for them to denounce the film after they signed a production deal with Netflix.

Cuties is described as a coming-of-age story of an 11-year-old Senegalese girl and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019, where Doucouré won the world cinema dramatic directing award.

On Tuesday Tyler County District Attorney Lucas Babin posted on Facebook that after watching the movie he, “knew there was probable cause to believe it was criminal.”

“The legislators of this state believe promoting certain lewd material of children has destructive consequences. If such material is distributed on a grand scale, isn’t the need to prosecute more, not less?”

“A grand jury found probable cause for this felony, and my job is to uphold the laws of this State and see that justice is done.”

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